The Modoc Indian War

THE MODOC INDIAN WAR by Kenneth L. Torgerson A Thesis Presented to the Department of History and the Graduate Division of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science JUNE 1954 APPROVED: ~esis (For the CollDDittee) ~ c~.J~\ ' "' bo ~ ~ '--...:.., "'\Q ~'- ~~ \ ') ! ! l: Table of Contents Prologue Chapter I. The Causes . ............................................. 1 II. Prelude to Disaster • •••••••••••••••••• 0 ••••••••••••••••• 24 III. The Fighting ............................................ 31 IV. The Assassination • •••• 0 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 39 V. Capture ..••••.•.•••..........•.••••..•.•.....••••...•••. 55 VI. The Trial • •••••••••••••••••• 0 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 67 VII. Aftermath and Conclusions ............................... 80 Epilogue Bibliography List of Illustrations: I. Map of the Lava Beds Region ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 1 II. Reconaissance of the Lava Beds • ••••••••••••••••••••• 0 ••• 32 III. " ft ft " " .......................... 33 IV. Photo of the Lava Beds • ••••••••••••••• 0 • ' ••••••••••••••• 34 ft II II V. " " • •••••••••••••••••••••••• 0 •••••••• 35 VI. " II II If II .................................. 38 II II ft ft It VII. •••••••••••••o•••••••••••••••••••• 46 II ft VIII. " " " • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 0 • 55 ft IX. " " " " ................................ ., . 56 ti x. " " " " .. .. • • • • • 0 •••••••• •• 0 •••• 63 l -- PROLOGUE Mark Twain's "Gilded Age" was a fabulous era. The "Gospel of Wealth" oreated economic titans such as Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, E. H. Harriman, Jim Fiske, and J.P. Morgan; it fostered the success stories of Horatio Alger; it built and sustained great slums. Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Lewis Henry Morgan, Bob Ingersoll, Henry and Brooks Adams, E. L. Godkin, and others wielded a powerful intellectual in.fluence. Cowboys, cavalry, and Indians added a dubious glamour to the age; Custer made his Last Stand; Cochise tried to keep peace in the Southwest and Geronimo broke it; Ulysses S. Grant was President of the United States in 1872 and 1873 when a small band of Indians in Southeastern Oregon added a brief chapter of their own to the "Gilded Age." This is the story of Captain Jack and the Modoc Indian War. ri ' .I\.~ ... CHAPTER I THE CAUSES On November 26, 1872, a band of Indians numbering some 50 warriors and 150 women and children left their reservation in Southeast Oregon, made their way forty miles South to the banks of Lost River, and waited for the United States Army or the Department of the Interior to take action. At dawn November 29, thirty-five soldiers and eight civilians arrived at the camp to return the Indians, peacefully if possible, forcibly if necessary. Making every assurance that there would be ample provision and protection should the Indians return to the reserve, a young Cavalry Lieutenant, John A. Boutelle advanced toward one of the Indians named Scarface Charley. "Hand me the gun!," he ordered. Scarface refused, and in the mounting tension two pistol shots sounded almost simultaneously, and another Indian War had begun. 1 Twenty years of attempting to avert this war disappeared with those shots, and before the Army could win the war, the cost in men and money mounted incredibly out of proportion. For over four months, 1000 American troops, well-trained and equipped tried to capture the lCyrus F. Brady, Northwest Fights and Fighters. (New York, 1913) 266-267. Indians, but they failed miserably. The Indian tribe were Modocs--a branch of the larger and more powerful Klamath lndians--who ranged in a semi-nomadic existence over the rolling, brown hills and fertile plains of the Klamath Basin in Southeast Oregon and Northeast California. Chief of the Modocs was Captain Jack, a relatively tall, broad, moon-faced Indian. Second-in-command was Schonchin John, who exercised occasionally rigid control over subordinates with such fascinating names as Shacknasty Jim, Black Jim, Hooker Jim, Boston Charley, Long-faced Jim, and One-eyed Dave. Most of the actual fighting was in the lava beds, a grotesque and nearly inaccessible mass of lava rock in Northeast California near the present town of Tulelake. Speaking of the lava beds, Don Fisher, late Superintendent of the Lava Beds National Monument, and authority on the Modoc War jokingly suggested that had not the food, water, and ammunition of the Modocs given out, "they might still be there." Fisher also suggested that the reasons behind this conflict can be compared to patterns of other Indian Wars in American history. Prejudice, misunderstanding, and fear were responsible for the deaths in the winter months of 1872-1873, and these reasons have certainly played major roles in creating, say, the Nez Perce War, the Apache difficulties, and the stubborn resistance of the Sioux and other Plains Indians. Thus, the Modoc War was not unusual. Most writers concerned with the Modoc Warf contend the difficulties can be traced to the Ben Wright Indian Massacre in late 1852. For several years prior to this Massacre, emigrants moving over the 2-rhere are not many. Applegate Trail into Southern Oregon, had been in conflict with the Modoc and Pit River Indians, culminating in the killing of 75 white emigrants in the summer of 1852 on the shores of Tule Lake in Northeast California.3 Although there was doubt about which tribe committed the act, a company of volunteers mustered "for the protection of other emigrants" arrived on the scene two days later to bury the dead and chastise the Indians. Under the command of Ben Wright, the volunteers, some 35 strong, could not engage the Modocs in "fair battle," and resorted to trickery. Terms for a combination peace conference and feast were then proposed to the Modocs. Although naturally cautious, many of the Modocs were unable to resist the prospect of a feast and gathered around Wright's campfire. Wright first attempted to poison the Modoc food with strychnine, but the Indians waited impatiently for the Whites to begin eating. Realiz ing poison would not work, Wright approached the Modoc Chief, Schonchin, pulled his revolver, and shot him in the chest. Wright's men followed his example and killed 41 of 46 unarmed Modocs.4 Brandishing the scalps of the Modocs, Wright and his men rode back to Yreka, California, where. t-hey were met with extended congratulations ~ .,,,for their "peacemadng."~ A. B. Meacham, late Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Oregon, and a Special Commissioner to the Modocs during the war, asserts that this 3A. B. Meacham, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year 1873. (Washington, D.C., 1874) 78. 4A. B. Meacham, Wigwam and Warpath. <Boston, 1875) 298. 5Jeff A. Riddle, The Indian History of the Modoc War. CNP, 1914) 30. act of treachery has always been remembered by the Modoc people and had much to do in perpetuating the bitter feelings that have since existed.6 Meacham's opinion must be considered as fairly reliable because he was earnestly involved in the fighting and strategy, preceding and during the Modoc War. Doris Palmer Payne, an avid collector of Modoc artifacts, and author of Captain ~' Mqdoc Renegade, agrees with Meacham: "Over and over again, the story of that horror-filled night was told until everyone knew the smallest detail by heart ••• until the survivors had it etched deeply in their minds."7 However, classifying the Wright episode as the major cause of the Modoc War is incorrect on two counts. First, many of the important Modocs who fought in 1872-73 were at the time of the massacre extremely young or not yet born which would refute the theory that memories of the " ••• Massacre" were deeply engraved on the Modoc mind. Second, there were other, more direct reasons for the outbreak of fighting in 1872. Effects of the Wright Massacre no doubt contributed to Modoc dissatis faction with governmental practices. Therefore. it should be placed in context as a contributing factor. Conflicting accounts obscure the activities of Captain Jack's band from 1853 to 1864. The obvious inference is that the Modocs during this period were peaceful, if not inclined to indolence. Lawyer Elisha Steele of Yreka, a close friend of all the tribes in the area claims 6Meacham, Wigwam and Warpath., 298. 7Doris Palmer Payne, Captain Jack, Modoc Renegade. <Portland, Ore., 1938) 16. li that Captain Jack never took a glass of liquor and often whipped his men for doing so.8 Jeff Riddle, the son of the Indian heroine of the Modoc War, and a first-hand observer during the conflict, states that, "along about 1859 the Whites began to settle Captain Jack's country ••• They (the Modocs) welcomed the settlers. They got along fine; the settlers gave the Indians work, making juniper posts and rails, etc •••• The Indians never bothered the settlers and were not bothered in return."9 But the Yreka Journal has a different version, contending that "Jack and his band, not restrained by authority of any kind ••• ranged up and· down among the ranchers, visiting houses in the absence of the men, ordering the women to cook their dinners, lounging on beds while the frightened women complied, and committing various similar outrages for /;ear.Ji before the war began, causing the settlers to send their families to the Rogue River for safety."10 Meacham, probably the most reliable authority, concurs with the Journal, reporting to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that the Modocs were a constant source of annoyance to the settlers and would continue to be unless placed on an adequate reser vation. Apparently this eleven-year period was one of uncertainty, with Jack and his Modocs remaining docile during the winter months when food and shelter were scarce, and becoming rambunctious in the summer when the threat of starvation or freezing was not present. 8Meacham, Wigwam and Warpath., 304. 9Riddle, Indian History., 32. lOYreka Journal. (Yreka, California) File of issues for 1872 and 1873. Quoted from Payne, Captain Jack, Modoc Renegade. However, Captain Jack's annoyances, real or otherwise, were to stop October 14, 1864, at Council Grove near Fort Klamath where 710 Klamaths, 339 Modocs, and 22 Snake Indians met with J.

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